Biography

Marielle Songy is a freelance journalist and food writer rooted in the humid haze of New Orleans. She’s a perpetual optimist and a romantic who enjoys good words, good food, and good art in all of its forms.

Schedule

2:00 pm to 2:30 pm
State Capitol, Senate Committee Room F
Iconic New Orleans Cocktails: The Absinthe Frappé

2:45 pm to 3:30 pm
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

The Absinthe Frappé

The Absinthe Frappé examines the history of absinthe, its origins, and its influences, culminating in the story of the iconic New Orleans cocktail. Marielle Songy reveals how bartender Cayetano Ferrér invented the concoction and delves into the early days of the drink and its first home, the Old Absinthe House in the Crescent City. She explores the ban on absinthe in the United States and Europe and the misguided reasoning behind it, all in the context of New Orleans’s response to national Prohibition more broadly. Finally, Songy discusses the lifting of the restrictions on absinthe in 2007, a move largely spearheaded by New Orleans scientist and master distiller Theodore Breaux, who dispelled long-held notions that the Green Fairy invariably drove its connoisseurs to madness.